9 Inspirational Business Books for the New Year

The arrival of a new year brings the notion of a fresh start for both work and personal life. Looking to reinvigorate your workplace habits? Need a boost of confidence to bring in a year of success? Look no further than these nine leading inspirational business books.

Discover the best inspirational business books the new year has to offer:

Learn to battle conformity and outdated traditions with original ideas, policies, and practices. Using studies and stories from business, politics, sports, and entertainment, bestselling author Adam Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up for ideas you believe in, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt.

Shift yourself, your team, or your organization to reach new heights of confidence, market creation, and growth. This follow-up to the international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy will provide you with tools to move beyond competing, inspire confidence, seize new growth, and shift from a crowded “red ocean” of competition to a “blue ocean” of uncontested market space.

Think about motivation in a whole new light with Daniel H. Pink’s bestseller. Pink asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. In this transformative book, he examines the three elements of true motivation — autonomy, mastery, and purpose — and offers techniques for putting them into action.

Want to think about the art of timing in a whole new light? Pink is coming out with a new book all about timing this month! Learn more about When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing and our special offers by giving us a call.

Following his 2009 international bestseller, Crush It!, Gary Vaynerchuk offers new lessons and inspiration drawn from the experiences of dozens of influencers and entrepreneurs. The secret to their success? Their understanding of social media platforms and their willingness to do whatever it takes to make these tools work for them. Vaynerchuk expertly unpacks various social media platforms so that anyone can utilize these tools to amplify their personal brand.

Ever wonder why some people and organizations are more innovative, influential, and profitable than others? The answer, according to Simon Sinek, is that they start with why. They realize that people won’t truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea unless they understand the why behind it. Based on his widely popular TED Talk, Start With Why provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired.

Melissa A. Schilling, a leading expert on innovation, examines the lives of seven creative geniuses — Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, Dean Kamen, Nicola Tesla, Marie Curie, and Steve Jobs — in order to identify their unique traits that led them to become breakthrough innovators. Schilling reveals the science behind the convergence of traits that increase the likelihood of success and explains how to facilitate breakthrough innovation in our own lives.

This updated and revised version of the international bestseller provides a proven, step-by-step strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in any type of conflict. Readers will learn the straight-forward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting angry or giving in, as perfected by the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Through years of research and personal experience, Carter Cast defines five archetypes that play out in professional situations; regardless of race, gender, or job title. Along the way, he shows how these archetypes fail and succeed and how to recognize blind spots. He then provides ways to improve self-understanding and take charge of one’s career.

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene is a trusted exploration into 3,000 years of powerful people in history, all boiled down to 48 laws to live by in business and life. A New York Times Bestseller, this book serves as a manual for taking control and living a powerful life. This definitive title is for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.

This post was written by Megan Habel, the marketing associate at BookPal. She is currently reading The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.